The disclosures herein relate generally to communications software applications and more particularly to a Web-enabled transaction and collaborative management system.
The needs of a company for effective channels of communication among its own employees as well as between those employees and its service providers have never been greater. For example, the current volume and velocity of transactions and matters have strained traditional ways of working and communicating between law firms or other outside service providers and their clients. Many clients have expressed an interest in harnessing the power of technology, in general, and the Worldwide Web (the “Web”), in particular, to create a competitive edge that enables them to better manage their transactional and matter processes.
Recent advances in technology, particularly the growth in the acceptability of the Web, have created the possibility of applying technology to develop more innovative and efficient ways of working and communicating between clients and their outside service providers (e.g., law firms, accounting firms, advertising agencies); however, most applications available today fall far short of meeting the clients' needs and expectations.
Other currently available information management applications are targeted primarily to a company's in-house service providers and their staff—to the exclusion of the business people. In addition, applications are largely passive, with the company's employees merely viewing information entered by an outside law firm. The reports generated by such applications are also fairly limited in scope, including, for example, cost and expense-centered reports.
Therefore, what is needed is a system for providing more effective channels of communication between a client and its employees and the client's outside service providers.